Your harps, ye trembling saints,
Down from the willows take:
Loud to the praise of love divine,
Bid ev'ry string awake.
Though in a foreign land,
We are not far from home:
And nearer to our house above
We ev'ry moment come.

His grace will to the end
Stronger and brighter shine;
Nor present things, nor things to come,
Shall quench the spark divine.
Fasten'd within the vail,
Hope be your anchor strong;
His loving spirit, the sweet gale
That wafts you smooth along.

Or, should the surges rise,
And peace delay to come;
Blest is the sorrow, kind the storm,
That drives us nearer home.
The people of his choice
He will not cast away;
Yet do not always here expect
On Tabor's mount to stay.

When we in darkness walk.
Nor feel the heav'nly flame;
Then is the time to trust our God,
And rest upon his name.
Soon shall our doubts and fears
Subside at his control:
His loving-kindness shall break through
The midnight of the soul.

No wonder, when his love
Pervades your kindling breast,
You wish for ever to retain
The heart-transporting guest.
Yet learn, in ev'ry state,
To make his will your own;
And when the joys of sense depart,
To walk by faith alone.

By anxious fear depress'd,
When, from the deep, ye mourn,
'Lord, why so hasty to depart,
So tedious in return?'
Still on his plighted love,
At all events rely:
The very hidings of his face
Shall train thee up to joy.

Wait, till the shadows flee;
Wait, thy appointed hour:
Wait, till the bridegroom of thy soul
Reveals his love with pow'r.
The time of love will come,
When thou shalt clearly see,
Not only that he shed his blood,
But that it flowed for thee!

Tarry his leisure then,
Although he seem to stay:
A moment's intercourse with him
Thy grief will over-pay.
Blest is the man, O God,
That stays himself on thee!
Who wait for thy salvation, Lord,
Shall thy salvation see.
    Rev. Augustus Toplady


Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.  Psalms 37:7

“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.”  Take the case of one who, with a load above his strength, has been toiling some steep and broken path, when suddenly he finds it lifted off and transferred to another whose strength he knows to be more than equal to the task, and in whose sympathy he can securely trust.  What would his feeling be but one of perfect rest, and calm reliance, and joyous freedom, as they went on their way together?  And such is the blessedness of rolling our care upon the Lord--in weakness we are resting on superior strength, in perplexity and doubt we are resting on superior wisdom, in all times of trial and hard service we can stay ourselves on the assurance of his perfect sympathy.  The literal meaning of the word “rest,” is “be silent” towards the Lord.  With the eye fixed on him let all unbelieving thoughts be stilled, such thoughts as rise and rankle in the querulous spirit when it sees only its troubles, and not God in them, when the mists of earth hide from its sight the eternal stars of heaven.  Then like Jacob, it may say morosely, “All these things are against me;” or, like Elijah, despondently, “It is enough, now, O Lord, take away my life;” or, like Jonah, fretfully, “I do well to be angry.”  In regard to all such dark and unbelieving suggestions, the heart is to keep silence, to be still and know that he is God; silent as to murmuring, but not silent as to prayer, for in that holy meditative stillness the heart turns to commune with him.  What is “resting in God,” but the instinctive movement and upward glance of the spirit to him; the confiding all one’s griefs and fears to him, and feeling strengthened, patient, hopeful in the act of doing so!  It implies a willingness that he should choose for us, a conviction that the ordering of all that concerns us is safer in his hands than in our own.                    
                                                                                                                                James D. Burns, M.A.